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Yeti Cave 4
Yeti Cave 4 is an encounter in The Savage North. It comes after Yeti Cave 2, Yeti Cave 3, Red in Axe and Claw 1, or The Huscarl's Offer. Enemies Transcript Introduction Roaring. Howling. Screeching. Thudding. Crashing. These and many other bestial sounds echo throughout the cave. If you didn’t know better, you’d assume the yetis were having a symposium. You gesture for your companions to advance in silence. However, given the current din the instruction is somewhat superfluous. An entire army of Titaran bagpipe players could likely play their way through the place without being heard over it. But you hug the inner wall as a concession to visual stealth, wishing to see what’s going on before you’re seen in turn. The precaution and the spectacle it enables you to enjoy both prove well worth it. In spite of your mental jest concerning a yeti symposium, the reality at first glance seems no less strange. Several of the creatures are arranged in a loose circle, leaving two of their number in the middle. Those two are brawling – bludgeoning one another with their powerful arms, grabbing, biting, gouging – whilst the others cheer, jeer, or screech as the mood takes them. For several moments you contemplate the startling notion that yetis are far more intelligent than you’d ever imagined – capable of staging athletic contests between members of their kind. Then the truth occurs to you, and you feel rather foolish. These are two males, battling for mastery of their pack… herd… cave… However one might properly refer to a group of yetis. Yes… Those are females on one side of the arrangement. Their sex is difficult to discern, since nature or the gods saw fit to best preserve their modesty and prevent their victims from experiencing awkwardness in their final moments. But you feel confident that it’s the case. They’re cheering on the fighters, knowing that they’ll become the winner’s mates. And it seems that this matter is about to be settled… One of the yetis – both of which are indistinguishable to your human eyes – strikes the other with a savage hammerfist blow on the top of his skull. His adversary crumples, stunned by its force, and rolls insensible on the ground. The aggressor roars, turns to the females, and roars once more. The females reply with a chorus of enthusiastic screeching and chattering. Then the victorious male fall upon his supine foe, pinning him to the ground beneath his bulk. His jaws widen, revealing his fangs in all their monstrous glory, before clamping themselves around the stunned yeti’s throat. The sound of ripping and tearing makes you wince in spite of all the butchery that you’ve seen and indeed wrought. As does the sight of the ruined throat when the victor stands back up – the loser’s windpipe in his mouth. The yetis issue another collective cacophony. The females crowd around their victorious alpha male and proceed to clean his powerful frame – disentangling bits of gore from his fur, licking away at his wounds. It’s a fascinating spectacle, an insight into yeti existence which you doubt any other human has ever borne witness to. But your pride at your newfound knowledge evaporates when one of the females turns in your direction. Her red eyes widen, then narrow. The other yetis take up the cry as she points and screeches – chief among them the recent victor who seems less than pleased at having his hard-won domain intruded upon. Conclusion The yeti’s fist smashes against the ground with such thunderous force that you’re glad you decided to dodge instead to trying to block it with your shield. If battering the stone hurts him, he gives no sign. Instead he lunges – as though trying to smash you beneath his bulk. A good strategy against fellow yetis, perhaps. Not as practical against an agile human with a good sword. Again you slip aside. This time you follow with a lunge, digging the blade into his muscular flesh. The yeti’s hide is tough, his thews dense and hardy. But the incantation you spit out suffices to overcome these obstacles. Magical energy surges down the sword, working its way through the steel and into the bestial flesh beyond. When you yank the weapon sideways, it moves through his body as though it were passing through butter. You pull it free. It’s a split second before the gaping wound opens in the sword’s wake, and his organs cascade onto the cave floor amid a wave of assorted viscera. The monster stares at that gory pile, blinks, then collapses onto it. Tessa saunters over to the throatless corpse after the last of the yetis has joined him in death. “An… interesting… mating ritual”, she says. “Our mating customs in hell were far more eclectic,” Brachus replies. “I wooed Gazrashesha by successfully juggling her former lover’s testicles. All ten of them.” Category:The Savage North